Smartphones will help scientists in the study of the universe

Smartphones are devices that many people can not imagine today because they provide not only communication with their loved ones, but they also allow them to work, and in the spare moments they provide us with entertainment. However, researchers believe that smartphones can also have other uses, so they want to use it to help in the study of the universe.

Researchers at UC Irvine and UC Davis have developed a way to use mobile devices as a large wavelength radiation detector that constantly attacks our planet.

Cosmic rays of high energy consist mainly of protons and atomic nuclei moving at incredible speeds. The origin of these molecules is still unknown, which is why researchers want to investigate them better.

Whenever cosmic radiation reaches the atmosphere, it causes an explosion in which secondary molecules such as mions, electrons and photons fall on a large area of ​​the planet’s surface. Researchers study them with the help of appropriate instruments, but the trouble is that these particles fall to Earth very rarely and there is no guarantee that this will happen in the place where the detector works. So it was decided to use smartphones to detect them.

The built-in camera can record the rain of particles falling on the planet as a result of cosmic radiation rays, so an application called CRAYFIS (Cosmic Rays Found in Smartphones) was created. If a sufficient number of people use it, then a huge network of particle detectors will be created that will provide scientists with very precise data about them, letting them know where they come from and what they generate.

Last year it was discovered that some of the molecules that came to Earth came from supernova explosions, but the origin of the rest is still a mystery.

CRAYFIS is available on iOS and Android, and works only when the device is not in use. The application observes the particles using the built-in camera, and when it detects something, it transmits the data to the control panel.